Child Custody Under Quebec Laws (Overview)

Wondering about child custody under Quebec laws?

What type of child custody arrangements can a Quebec court award?

What are the factors that a Quebec court will consider to render a child custody judgment?

In this article, we will go over child custody under Quebec laws. We will define what is child custody, what happens after the break up of the parents, the type of child custody arrangements possible and the factors the court will consider to render a child custody judgment.

We have divided the article into the following sections for ease of navigation:

What is child custody?
Child custody when parents break up
Types of child custody
What factors will a family court consider for child custody?
How is child custody established?
Takeaways

Let’s get started…

What is child custody?

Child custody is the term we use to refer to how a child or children are cared for by the parents.

Having custody is having the responsibility for the care of the child.

When a couple is together, the couple will take care of their children and mutually arrange their activities and obligations.

They each exercise shared custody of their children.

The parents will provide their children with emotional support, stability and security.

They’ll make sure their child is happy, well-nourished and develops in a healthy way.

The parents will educate their children academically and socially.

They will provide their children with moral and religious guidance.

Child custody as a concept does not change whether you are in a relationship with the other parent or not.

From the moment you become the parent of the child, you have custody over that child.

Child custody takes on more of an importance after a break up as the parents will need to find new ways to individually care for their child and manage the custody schedule and logistics among themselves.

Let’s look at child custody when parents break up.

Child custody when parents break up

The concept of child custody after the break up of the parents does not change.

Parents remain responsible to take care of their children, provide them with emotional and financial support and make the right decisions in the life of their child to help them become contributing members of our society.

What is challenging in most cases is how the parents will handle the child custody logistics among themselves.

There are several factors making this process quite challenging after the break up:

The parents are no longer in a relationship as they no longer consider their relationship as viable long-term
In many cases, the end of the relationship is as a result of conflict between the parents
The parents will need to adjust to their new life after their relationship
As the parents adjust to their new lives, they must also continue providing care for their children
The break up in most cases results in financial hardship for both parents
The children may not accept the break up and have difficulty adjusting to their new lives

There are many factors that will result in major challenges for the parents to move on.

It will take dedication, effort, patience, concession and collaboration on the part of the parents to make it work.

After their break up, parents must keep good communication to be able to sort things out with one another.

If the parents are able to mutually manage and handle the care of their children following their break up, things will be much easier to handle.

If the parents are unable to handle the care of their children after break up, then chances are a family court will need to define how child custody will be managed between them.

Under the Quebec laws, there are different types of custody arrangements.

Based on the circumstances of the parents and the family, the family courts will render a custody judgment in such a way that the best interest of the child.

What are the different types of custody arrangements under Quebec laws?

Types of child custody

Child custody under Quebec laws is divided into sole custody, sole custody with prolonged outing rights, sole custody granted to each parent, shared custody and child custody combinations.

Sole custody

Sole custody is a type of custody arrangement where one parent has sole custody of the child and the other parent may exercise visitation rights for less than 20% of the time.

When we say 20% of the time, we are referring to the number of days in a year.

For example, if one parent has the sole custody of a child and the other parent has the child every Saturday, then we are in a sole custody arrangement.

The parent with sole custody will have the child 313 days in a year while the other parent will have 52 days in a year.

The parent with sole custody therefore has 85.7% of custody time while the other parent has 14.3% of custody time.

Sole custody with prolonged access rights

The second type of custody arrangement under Quebec laws is the sole custody arrangement with prolonged access rights.

Under this type of child custody arrangement, one parent will have sole custody while the other parent will have visitation rights anywhere between 20% to 40% of the time.

This means that the parent not having sole custody will exercise custody over the child between 73 days and 146 days in a year.

An example of this type of child custody arrangement is when one parent has custody 5 days a week and the other parent has 2 days a week.

When you look at the number of days each parent will have child custody in a year, one parent will have 260 days (71.2%) while the other parent will have 104 days (28.8%).

Sole custody granted to each parent

The third type of child custody arrangement in Quebec is sole custody granted to each parent.

Although rare, for this type of child custody to be possible, the parents will need to have at least two children.

The court will grant the sole custody of one child to one parent and the sole custody of the other child to the other parent.

The same visitation right rules apply.

If the visitation rights are under 20%, then the custody arrangement for the child is considered sole custody arrangement.

If the other parent has visitation rights ranging between 20% and 40% of the year, then we’ll say sole custody with prolonged access rights.

Shared custody

The shared custody arrangement is the custody schedule where each parent will have between 40% and 60% of the child’s custody time in a year.

If parents share custody on a weekly basis, on an alternating basis, then they’ll have a 50/50 child custody arrangement.

Each parent will have exactly half of the child’s custody time.

Child custody combinations

The final possible custody arrangement is when the court grants a different type of child custody arrangement per child.

For this child custody arrangement to be possible, the parents will need to have at least two children.

For example, the court may grant a sole custody arrangement for one child and a shared custody arrangement for another child.

What factors will a family court consider for child custody?

Child custody is established by the Quebec family courts in consideration of the best interest of the child or children.

Each family’s situation is different and the interest of each child will also be different.

Child custody is not a one-size-fits-all type of solution.

The family courts will have the delicate task of considering what’s the family dynamic, what are the children’s needs, the parent’s relationship and what type of child custody arrangement will promote the best interest of the children.

There may not be a perfect solution where both parents will be happy.

In some cases, the court will need to make a difficult decision and allocate the child custody time in such a way that it considers the children’s health, safety and overall progress will be optimized.

The family court will try to establish what is the best interest of the child by considering several factors such as:

Your child’s age
How your child has been developing so far
Your child’s special needs
Your child’s level of maturity
Your child’s relationship with siblings
Your child’s relationship with each parent
Your child’s opinion and wishes
The caring abilities of each parent
How each parent has been handling himself of herself after separation
The ability of the parents to cooperate
The ability of the parents to communicate well
Cultural differences
Religious differences
Language barriers

These are just some factors the court will consider in order to render a child custody judgment.

There may be more depending on the particular facts of each case.

How is child custody established?

Child custody can be established either by the court or upon the mutual agreement of the parties.

If the parents are able to mutually agree on the child custody arrangements, they’ll be able to find a more long-term solution and the transition for their children can be smoother.

However, if the parents are unable to mutually agree on the child custody arrangements, implementing a judgment from the court may be adversarial and frustrating and the transition for the children will be more difficult.

Takeaways

Child custody under Quebec laws defines the criteria the court must take into consideration to decide on child custody.

There are also several types of custody arrangements possible under Quebec laws:

Sole custody
Sole custody with prolonged access
Sole custody granted to each parent
Shared custody
Child custody combinations

Depending on how much time you have with each child, your child custody arrangement will fall under one of the above child custody buckets.

With this article, we hoped to provide you an introduction to child custody under Quebec laws.

We hope that you enjoyed it.

Should you need the assistance of a child custody attorney or a child custody family law firm having experience in the area of child custody laws, we are here to support you.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to our experienced family lawyers.

In the meantime, we wish you all the best!